Dasvedanya
by frockers
Summary: When Peter tells Alex of his decision to return to Russia to become a ferryman, how will Alex react to his changing feelings for his friend? A one-shot based on the novel 'The Wild Children' by Felice Holman. Slashy and sweet.


A/N: In school we were forced to read this albeit all right novel called 'The Wild Children'. It started as an inside joke, but I think we actually came to believe that everyone single one of the boys in that book is gay. So here you are, the long await.Wild Children Slash!p For those of you that have actually read the book, this is an adaptation of the very last scene. All the dialogue is straight from the book, however I kicked Kostia out of the scene and made Alex say his one line. Oh well.p I doubt I will get very many reviews on this, as there are probably not very many people who have read this book and share my point of view considering 'orientation'. But if you have, please take the time to leave me a word! Thanks.p *P Nine tired children trudged slowly towards the shoreline, making slow progress as they stumbled over ice and sludge in a single file. Ungloved hand in ungloved hand, they marched ceaselessly towards the endless tundra of Finland, hope alight in the face of every child.p Alex averted his eyes from the line of children snaking along towards the beach to the only one left in the boat.p "Come on, Peter," Alex said, steadying the boat for him.p And he offered a bare hand to his mentor.p "No," Peter said slowly. "I'm not going."p "Not going!" Alex cried. "What are you going to do, stay here on the ice? Live in the boat?"p Alex accompanied his feeble attempt at jest with an equally feeble chortle. He let his proffered hand hang awkwardly in the space between them, knowing all the same that the other boy would refuse it. Peter's next words were measured and contemplative.p "I'm going to go back and...and fish with Nicholai."p Alex scoffed, masking what he knew to be the truth with yet another futile attempt at humour.p "You don't know anything about fishing."p It was Peter's turn to laugh, and his laugh rang on the cold ice and water, and somehow it sounded warm. For a moment, Alex felt comforted.p " I know about IthisI kind of fishing. I'm going back to Moscow to get some more children and bring them to Nicholai. I think I shall become a ferryman."p Alex was reminded of what a kind boy Peter had become to him - what a good man he would make. Tall, dark, sinister Peter, leader of a band of wild children, a boy far less educated yet somehow just as intelligent as him. In the past months, Peter had played many different roles in Alex's life - leader, mentor, brother, father, friend. It was only in that moment that Alex realized he had begun to see Peter in a different light. Alex had never been an impulsive boy, yet, even through the months he had spent as a waif, he had always been an honest one. In those parting moments, he expressed his newfound feelings for Peter in the only way he knew how.p He leaned forward and kissed Peter solidly on the mouth. It was a kiss full of urgency, unresolved emotion and the endless pain and longing of loss. In that moment, Alex let open the floodgate and poured every single emotion he had experienced in the past months onto Peter's lips. All the same he was raw with inexperience, acting solely on feeling. He gripped the older boy's forearms with unsettling strength, so hard he knew Peter would find black and blue replicas of his fingerprints there later on. He kept his eyes squeezed shut, breaking off only when he felt Peter's hands on his chest pushing him gently but firmly back.p Peter met his gaze head-on; brown eyes locked on blue, and did nothing but stare at Alex for what seemed an eternity. Alex cringed, expecting a barrage of insults and questions and curses. To his surprise, a cryptic half-smile crawled slowly along Peter's lips. He reached out, and pushed a strand of sandy-brown hair away from Alex's face.p "Cheer up," was all he said.p Alex let his gaze fall to his soiled boots.p "Will you ever come back to the band?" he asked quietly.p "Perhaps," Peter said. "When we've fished the sea for all the good fish."p Again, Alex felt the constriction in his throat, the twisting in his stomach, the pain of separation he had come to recognize as the most agonizing pain of all. He had not thought there was worse pain than that, however it was doubled with the addition of bittersweet and subtle rejection.p "No, Peter," he entreated, almost begged. "Come with us. We are a...a family." He left out what he had really wanted to say.p "Yes," Peter said. "And I am going back for others in the family."p He reached out and tilted Alex's chin upwards to look him in the eye, and let his hand linger there momentarily. Peter leaned in close, and placed a silent kiss on Alex's cheek.p "IDasvedanyaI, Alex." he whispered. "Say it to all of them for me."p Then with a mighty pull of oars, he was out on the water again, disappearing quickly into the rising mist. Alex watched for a long while afterward, then slowly picked his way across the ice, wiping away the tears that fell frequently from his stinging eyes. He turned every now and then, trying to no avail to catch a glimpse of Peter in the distance.p *p Thanks for reading! Constructive criticism is appreciated, however all out flames are only useful when my furnace is broken.p Thanks to all my friends for their wonderful criticisms and beta-ing, and also for providing me with a topic to write about. Thanks also for your reviews (in advance), as you will undoubtedly be the only people to actually leave one. 


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